Italiani Si Diventa

Beppe Severgnini

If you're looking for something easy and enjoyable to read in the original Italian, remember you need look no further than Beppe Severgnini. Obvious places to start are Inglesi and Un Italiano in America because, if you're British or American, you are going to enjoy the sense of recognition this kind of material offers. The Italian is easy to follow, too, and there's nothing complex in his style of writing.

Then move on to Italiani Si Diventa. It's Severgnini's account of growing up in Crema, in Lombardy, in the 1960s and 1970s. It's a self-consciously unremarkable story. In fact, Severgnini is saying, this is none other than the shared experience of millions of Italians of his era. But it's told with wit and self-deprecation and obvious fondness for his comfortable (if, perhaps, parocchial) upbringing. And in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure Beppe's a walk in the park.